Zinnia and Her Parents
As time grew on, Zinnia found comfort from her books and from the guidance of Eden, but she knew she had her own life to deal with. "Any packages come today?" Jafar asked as he burst into Zinnia's room. She was reading a large book and had many others scattered around her. "Mmm-mmm." She shook her head without looking up. Jafar kicked at one of the books. "Where'd all this come from?" "The library." Zinnia said as she looked up to her father. She then returned to her book. "The library? You have never set foot in a library. You are only four years old." said Jafar thickly. "Six and a half." Zinnia frowned as she looked up at her father once more. She knew her parents were thick, but she hadn't imagined them to be that thick. "You are four," Jafar replied coldly. "Six and a half." Zinnia repeated, arrantly not liking Jafar's manners. "If you were six and a half, you'd be in school already!" said Jafar venomously. "I want to be in school. I told you I was supposed to start school in September, you wouldn't listen," Zinnia growled. Jafar frowned and grabbed the young girl by her arm. "Get up." He pulled. "Get up." He dragged the young girl to the master bedroom of the house where his wife was fixing her hair. "Give me that book." He grabbed the book on Joan of Arc that Zinnia had been reading and tossed it towards the living room. He then dragged the youngest of the household into the room. "Dearest pie," He called out to his wife. "How old is Zinnia?" Without so much as a glance in their direction, the ragged lady replied, "Four." "No, Mom. I'm six and a half." said an unhappy Zinnia. "Five, then." lied Sadria. "I was six in August." Zinnia spoke up again, angrily. "Do not lie." Was her father's response as he headed towards the vanity. Both adults seemed to care a lot about their appearance. "I'm not lying! I want to go to school!" Zinnia told him, knowing full well she was not lying. "Pfft, school. It is out of the question." Jafar grabbed at a bottle of hair tonic that he kept on the vanity. "Who'd be here to sign for the packages?" Jafar tended to get a lot of packages, most of which were illegal things that he used in his carriage shop. "We can't leave valuable packages sitting out there on the doorstep." "Shut your yap!" said Zinnia, half-angry, half-crying. She was already ready to cry. "Now go watch TV like a good kid," he told her before turning away. Sadria, unaware that the young girl was still in the room, or maybe she just didn't care, started to talk about her. "You know, sometimes, I think there's something wrong with that girl." "Heh, tell me about it." Her husband agreed, applying his tonic to his hair as Zinnia left the room, heartbroken. Zinnia leaned down to collect her book from the hallway floor when the final member of her family began to rub it in on her just how different she was. "Hey, dip face!" She despised that name. Amir threw a marshmallow at her. "Have a marshmallow! Have another marshmallow, dip face!" Though pulverized with marshmallows, Zinnia ignored him and kept walking with the book against her chest, heading towards her room. "Dip face!" could be heard before she slammed the door behind her. Zinnia cried silently. She wished there was someone who at least understood. She had no friends. In fact, after spending so much positive time outside or in the library, she found it hard to live a home life with these people. She closed the book and sat alone with nothing to do. Genie stood in the closet, sadly watching the poor girl think to herself in tears. Genie faced the audience again. He said, "Sometimes, Zinnia longed for a friend. Someone like the kind, courageous people in her books. However, it occurred to her that like talking dragons and princesses with hair long enough to climb towers, such people might exist only in storybooks. But Zinnia was about to discover... she could be her own friend. She had a kind of great strength she was not yet aware of." Category:Fan Fiction Category:Matilda Fanmakes